Masondo’s ‘deal’ with gender body
Parliament asked to investigate Commission for Gender Equality after Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo’s secret meeting with its chair while he was the subject of a complaint to the body
Asecret meeting between the Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) chairperson Tamara Mathebula and Deputy Finance Minister David Masondo while he was the subject of a complaint to the body has caused consternation at the commission. The meeting resulted in a “confidential” agreement between the institution and Masondo — one which the complainant, Palesa Lebitse, cannot see.
One commissioner told the Mail & Guardian that it was “highly irregular” for the commission to reach undisclosed agreements with a respondent in the absence of the complainant, alleging that the case had a whiff of political influence.
“Some of us are deployed to do the bidding for the ruling party specifically. Why would I have a meeting with Masondo and not have a meeting with Palesa? It’s highly irregular.”
However, CGE spokesperson Javu Baloyi countered that Mathebula did not meet Masondo alone, but that she was accompanied by the commission’s former chief executive and the head of its legal department.
“The chairperson does not meet with respondents at all, however it was brought to her attention that Dr Masondo was insisting on meeting her and, seeing that she could spare a few minutes, the chairperson decided to be courteous and meet him. The chairperson did not arrange this informal meeting. The chairperson does not involve herself in legal proceedings and has no influence on how complaints are handled by the CGE,” Baloyi said.
Efforts to reach Masondo for comment were unsuccessful.
In emails seen by the M&G, Lebitse asked three times to meet with Mathebula to inquire about the meeting and the CGE’S agreement but was denied the opportunity.
The investigation into Masondo comes after an affair between the deputy minister and Lebitse soured, resulting in her controversial arrest by the Hawks.
In 2019, Lebitse approached the commission to investigate Masondo. The commission found no wrongdoing by the Hawks and there has been no investigation into Masondo.
The commission is a chapter 9 institution mandated to investigate gender-related complaints.
Three commissioners who spoke to the M&G anonymously each labelled Mathebula’s actions as irregular and suspect. One of the commissioners told the M&G that the secret meeting between Mathebula and Masondo had caused concern.
“We don’t know what was discussed and what promises were made and why those minutes are not available,” one commissioner said, adding that the CGE’S legal team had told Mathebula her actions were indefensible.
“Internally as part of a legal team, we can’t defend her. People can create stories around that meeting. People can say this is a politically sensitive case. Even the head of legal at the time was very frustrated by that meeting. She was not happy about it. She was not willing to touch that,” the commissioner added.
Another commissioner said while they did not doubt the confidence of the team that handled the case, “it does not paint a good picture”.
“Legally I trust the report to be objective, and to have been sound in its legal examination but there are things around that report that raised issues because no one knew what was said and what was promised.”
Lebitse was arrested by the Hawks in August 2019, when they set a trap for her in which she accepted money from men she believed were representing Masondo, but who were in fact undercover police officers.
In her court application, Lebitse said she was detained at the Douglasdale police station from 17 to 19 August 2019. She was released after appearing in the Randburg magistrate’s court on charges of trying to bribe Masondo. The prosecutor declined to prosecute her. It later emerged that Masondo had offered her money.
On 16 August this year, Lebitse wrote a letter to Claudia Ndaba, the parliamentary chair of the portfolio committee on women, youth and persons with disabilities, saying Mathebula is “without ethics, incompetent and dishonest”.
Lebitse details how in October 2019 she laid a complaint at the commission regarding what she termed an unlawful arrest initiated by Masondo through “verifiable falsehoods” to the Hawks, and that he had forced her to terminate a pregnancy. She adds that she regarded Masondo’s conduct as intimate partner violence, which is a form of gender-based violence.
“I was advised … that the CGE was an institution competent to investigate Masondo for his conduct.”
In a lawsuit Lebitse filed in May against Masondo, Police Minister Bheki Cele, and the head of the Hawks, Godfrey Lebeya, she argued that Masondo wrongfully and unlawfully set the law in motion by laying false charges of extortion against her. She also accused him of assault, claiming that he forced her to take pills to terminate her pregnancy.
The commission separated Lebitse’s complaint into sections: Masondo’s conduct; the Hawks’ conduct; and the doctor’s conduct. The commission’s first preliminary report, finalised in November 2020, cleared the Hawks.
“To my shock, Masondo was not a respondent,” Lebitse said. “I was of the view that even if the matters are separated, Masondo was central to every single matter. I did not complain against the Hawks for the CGE to investigate. The CGE would not have any jurisdiction over the Hawks’ conduct. The Hawks’ conduct did not amount to intimate partner violence, Masondo’s conduct did.”
When Lebitse requested minutes of the 2019 meeting, using the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the commission’s chief executive, Jamela Robertson, wrote on 5 February that “after careful consideration of your request, it is found that the records requested do not fall within the ambit of the listed category. We further confirm that the meeting was an informal engagement, thus it was not recorded.”
In a letter dated 30 June, Robertson admitted an agreement had been reached but refused to disclose the contents citing that “disclosure will violate a confidentiality agreement between the parties and the CGE”.
This is not the first time serious allegations have been made against the commission.
A group of 40 gender activists have called into question the political appointment of commissioners in a letter to parliament’s acting speaker, Lechesa Tsenoli. They wrote: “Several of these commissioners have been mired in allegations of corruption and malpractice. Some have attempted to interfere with the operations of the institution in direct contravention of their oversight mandate, which further leads to a lack of public confidence in the CGE.
“We implore you … to appoint an impartial investigation into the CGE’S current challenges, as well as its structural historic challenges, which have impeded it from fulfilling its constitutional duty to the nation.
“As the CGE struggles to implement its public mandates, given the persistence of patriarchal gender inequality and gender-based violence on all levels of society and in all communities, especially in the most marginalised communities suffering of persistent poverty and unemployment, the CGE’S mandate is all the more critical to us as a country, as women, men, people, children, all subject to patriarchal violence.”
Baloyi told the M&G that the commission wrote to Masondo on 1 September 2020 and a response was furnished on 30 September 2020.
“Dr Masondo highlighted that the complaint before the commission is subject to a criminal investigation by the South African Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA),” he said, and that Masondo expected that to be completed first.
“The five complaints are the subject of a criminal investigation by the police and the NPA which cases were opened by Lebitse … the complainant cited the Hawks as one of the entities that she complained about. Section 11 of the CGE Act allows investigations of all organs of state.”
“The CGE investigation into the Hawks was not whether the Hawks initiated a lawful arrest on Lebitse but rather on, inter alia, whether the arrest was initiated because the complainant was a woman. The CGE report highlights that the commission was not persuaded that the arrest was because of gender discrimination,” Baloyi added.